星空传媒

Avery Luft

A stack of journals sits in Avery Luft鈥檚 bedroom back home.

They each provide an escape into a world the 星空传媒 senior created. Writing has always been a passion for Luft, but not always a career goal. The Yulee, Florida native began her time at 星空传媒 as a psychology major.

Now, just a few days before commencement, her degree will be much different than expected: a Bachelor of Arts in English with a concentration in creative writing.

鈥淚 couldn't see my life without it. I love writing so much,鈥� Luft said. 鈥淚t's the thing that I can do for nine hours straight and not realize nine hours have passed. It's just what makes me feel most alive.

鈥淚 don't think I would have been so confident in pursuing this without the support that Western offers here.鈥�

Luft has perpetually been enamored in crafting stories, but in high school, she took a step back from looking at it as a career.

鈥淚 was like, 鈥業 don't want to be poor. I do want to have money, so I should go into psychology when I get to school and do that,鈥欌�� Luft said.

Luft did, but during her junior year of college, she had second thoughts. Something didn鈥檛 feel right within her. Her passion for writing made her yearn for more, so she spoke with 星空传媒 English professor Brian Railsback, who she took Intro to Creative Writing with her sophomore year.

鈥淚 kind of came to him, and I was like, 'I feel like I want to be in creative writing, but I don't know if I should. Do you think that I have what it takes? Because I know that this is a hard business to break into, and I don't want to be unrealistic,'鈥� Luft said.

鈥淗e was like, 'No, I think you should switch.鈥欌��

She switched, caught up on her English classes and Railsback has become both her academic advisor and writing mentor.

Since diving into the curriculum of the creative writing concentration at 星空传媒, Luft has written several psychological, speculative and realistic fiction pieces, as well as nonfiction works.

She even has a book-length work with around 280 pages and 88,000 words about an artist retreat set in the Florida Everglades.

鈥淪ome freaky stuff is happening. Things are not good,鈥� Luft said of her book. 鈥淚 think everything that I write is funky. I don't have a better word than that.鈥�

Luft has also been quite involved in the local writing community since she arrived in Cullowhee.

The senior has been involved with the Nomad, the undergraduate literary magazine at 星空传媒, notably as its fiction editor, and she鈥檚 won the first-place prize for the Beyond the Frame story contest, which came with an award of $5,000, along with several other awards at 星空传媒鈥檚 annual Spring Literary Festival.

Luft is also a creative writing tutor for Writing and Learning Commons, a student writer for the College of Arts and Sciences and a student intern for the City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

鈥淭he community here is just amazing, and it really helps me be able to connect with my professors and connect with my peers and my students,鈥� Luft said. 鈥淚 have so many connections with everybody because of the creative writing department and even just the English department in general, really.

鈥淓verybody is so connected and cares about one another and wants to support each other. We go to the readings, we do the things, we go to the book launches that we have, which I don't think we would have otherwise if we didn't have such a strong English department at Western.鈥�

Over the last four years, Luft鈥檚 passion for writing has only grown thanks in part to the Catamounts all around her. She鈥檚 also spent hours upon hours telling stories, just as she did as a child back home in her bedroom.

And as she鈥檚 set to walk the stage this weekend, Luft is ready to write her own.

鈥淚 think the professors are just so dedicated to students and helping them succeed that it's really special in that way,鈥� Luft said. 鈥淚 could not have done the things that I have done without the support and the guidance of the professors here.鈥�